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Being an older woman in entering the legal profession has been an interesting experience. It is difficult to determine if my experiences are more a factor of my gender or my age, but I know that my experiences have been significantly different from those of my son, with whom I am attending the same law school in the same class. Having a background as a professor in another professional school dominated by women, I see considerable differences in how women are treated and welcomed to the profession.The first difference is in how novices are hired and trained. In my previous…

I knew from very early on that I wanted to attend law school. My grandmother told me to get the highest degree I could, make sure that men worked for me, and to always keep a separate bank account from my husband. To some this may seem like extreme advice for a grandmother to give, but I assure you my grandmother was not a woman one would consider "radical" at first glance and even after a second and third inspection. She was a church going woman, who loved her family. And in fact she did keep a separate bank account…

As an African-American woman I feel as if I have a somewhat different perspective on being a woman entering the legal profession. I not only have to overcome gender stereotypes but racial stereotypes as well. As a young woman, watching my mother, a successful woman in the business world, I remember countless times when I overheard her telling my father about the sexist encounters she had with co-workers and clients. Late at night when I was up finishing my homework in my room I could hear her telling my father about the customer that was hesitant about her working on…

Solutions to Discriminatory Behavior Please!!Firstly, I want to thank everyone for sharing their stories regarding differential behavior, expectations and perks between male and female associates. It is unfortunate that they are all too common and familiar to most of us. However, besides realizing that I am not alone and am not being overly sensitive in noticing the differences, I beg you to submit solutions along with the problems -- how women have successfully dealt with such issues and how we can do the same! The only two end stories I read ended with the woman attorneys leaving their firms. That…

Since the first day of law school, my law school professors have conveyed words of wisdom. However, one professor in particular gave me advice that continues to provide me guidance when I am overwhelmed with my studies or unsure as to what direction to take. His advice was simple yet profound: Do not forget why you came to law school. The first month I kept thinking how anyone could forget why they came to law school. I came to law school, because I want to have the ability to use the law to help people. I want to be part…

For so long, positions of authority were held by men who believed women were to be subservient to them. One would like to think that was at a time when women were not given the opportunity to excel in the world, especially the legal world. Times have changed, slowly, but changed none the less. Throughout the US, in all law school institutions, the ratio of male to female students has increasingly evened out, with some universities admitting more females then males. Not only are females entering the legal field, but we are excelling.A woman can bring more to the table…

My father is an attorney, and everyone says how similar we are. But I like that I am the "girl version." I grew up idolizing my dad. He is elegant and charming, easy on his feet, a fast-talker, brilliant, commanding and compassionate. My dad is an attorney. He is everything the movies and media painted as an archetypal lawyer. And I thought the world of him--still do. Strangers, friends, family, all gushed how similar the two of us were--our eyes, our hair, our personalities. I beamed in his presence. I soaked up his ferocious liberal politics. I listened intently as…

I am in law school because Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg will not live forever. Thanks to Justice Kennedy and his paternalistic majority opinion in Carhart v. Gonzales, women are now assigned to our appropriate role in society as incubators. The Carhart opinion, intended to protect me and to ensure that I don't regret any of my reproductive decisions, rendered me a second class citizen.The Carhart opinion, authored by a man struggling to come out from behind the shadow of Sandra Day O'Connor, sounds a little bitter toward women. Kennedy was joined by a chorus of four other Catholic men, all…

In 1848, Charlotte Bronte wrote in a letter to William Smith: "I am neither a man nor a woman but an author." She was quick to defy gender classifications as she sought to be judged equally and apart from her male colleagues. While she spoke defiantly about gender in her letter, she would publish literature under men's names for over fifteen years, veiling her identity for fear that the "mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine'" and aware that "authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice." She sought to transcend the prism of gender,…

(To the women in my law school classes) The women who came before me made great strides in the study and practice of law, strides I didn't fully appreciate until I was studying law myself in an environment where I felt respected and where I was surrounded by other smart, capable women and powerful, inspiring female faculty. Because I know that this has not always been the case, I remain indebted to the women who came before me, for it is through their work breaking through barriers and challenging preconceptions that now, pursuing a law career has become an empowering…

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